1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an image forming cartridge and an image forming apparatus using the same, and more particularly to an image forming cartridge for forming images in a copying apparatus, a facsimile apparatus, a printer or the like, by an electrostatic image transfer process or an ink jet type image forming process, and to an image forming apparatus which uses such a image forming cartridge.
2. Description of the Background Art
An image forming apparatus of the type using an electrostatic image transfer system or an ink jet type image forming system is conventional and configured to form an image on a recording medium, e.g. a paper, a sheet or any recording medium. Such image forming apparatuses utilize an image forming cartridge, which collectively may have a photoconductive drum, a charging device, a developing device, a cleaning device, or the like, and which is detachably mounted in the image forming apparatus.
By using an image forming cartridge as above, it is easy to maintain the image forming apparatus because the image forming cartridge can be replaced with a new one if maintenance is required. Also, a user or a service person can maintain it.
In general, an image forming cartridge is made of parts having similar life cycles, e.g. a developing cartridge collectively mounting a toner accommodating portion and a developing device, a photoconductive drum cartridge collectively mounting a photoconductive drum, a charging device, and a cleaning device.
Particularly, a current trend in the imaging art is toward a tandem image forming apparatus that assigns a particular image carrier to each color in order to meet the increasing demand for high-speed color image formation. The tandem image forming apparatus includes a plurality of image forming cartridges each with a photoconductive drum, e.g. in a vertical or horizontal direction.
Another current trend is an increase in demand to reuse an image forming cartridge after the image forming cartridge is used up so that environmental disposal problems are prevented.
In a tandem image forming apparatus as above, a plurality of image forming cartridges are mounted inside an image forming apparatus. Therefore there is also a strong demand towards downsizing the image forming cartridge as much as possible so that a size of the image forming apparatus is small.
To solve the problem stated above, Japanese Laid-open publication No. 09-171338 describes a cartridge with a handle for which a user can easily grasp the cartridge for maintenance.
Also, Japanese Laid-open publication No. 2003-84646 describes an image forming apparatus having a plurality of process cartridges each with a handle in line.
Further, Japanese Laid-open publication No. 06-332304 describes a process cartridge with a handle, which is detachably installed on the process cartridge. The same handle can be installed in a developing unit, a cartridge, or a front cover.
FIG. 8 is an example showing a drawing of a related art image forming apparatus 150, and FIG. 9 is a top view of the image forming apparatus 150. The image forming apparatus 150 has a plurality of image forming cartridges, i.e. an image forming cartridge 100BK for black, an image forming cartridge 100C for cyan, an image forming cartridge 100M for magenta, and an image forming cartridge 100Y for yellow. These image forming cartridges 100BK, 100C, 100M, and 100Y are horizontally mounted in an image forming portion 151 of image forming apparatus 150. Also, FIG. 10 is another example showing a side view of an image forming apparatus 160, having a plurality of image forming cartridges 100BK, 100C, 100M, and 100Y in a vertical direction, in an image forming portion 161 of image forming apparatus 160.
In both of the image forming apparatuses shown in FIG. 9 and FIG. 10, each image forming cartridge 100BK, 100C, 100M, and 100Y has handles positioned at both sides in a width of a paper path outside of each image forming cartridge. These handles are formed a line in a horizontal or vertical direction. Therefore, when an image forming cartridge is replaced with a new one, it may be hard for a user to grasp handles of the image forming cartridge.